TOLL GATE, Clarendon — Disappointments of the past are but character-building exercises. That is the philosophy that Sporting Central Academy will take with them into the new Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) season.

The south-west Clarendon side will be entering their eighth successive year in the top flight with the tag of perennial strugglers hanging over their heads, having spent every season, except their debut campaign when they finished sixth, fighting relegation — usually after enjoying a good start to the competition. However, this time around, coach Nigel Stewart is hopeful that seven years of trial-and-error will finally pay off.

In a recent interview on local television, Stewart explained that, over the years, the main problem in their squad was “a lack of depth”. “We would have like 14 good players that can start in almost any Premier League team in Jamaica (but) the bench was weak,” he said.

Expounding on his point, the coach told the Jamaica Observer that the addition of over a dozen new players — including the August Town pair of Rupert Murray and Andrew Allen — will give the club a much better chance of sustaining a title challenge.

“Normally we would start to falter after the first round,” said Stewart. “Whenever we lose Francois Swaby or other key players to injury we don’t really have enough players to step up and fill the (void). These signings — mainly youngsters — will boost the squad, whether as a starter or coming off the bench.”

Over the summer, Sporting, who will open their season at Harbour View on Sunday, lost five players — four in the transfer window and one, Andre Morrison, to the University of Hartford in Connecticut. However, the likes of last season’s top scorer Swaby, captain Allien Whittaker, senior defender Linval Lewis and midfielder Camaal Reid remained at the club to spearhead their RSPL campaign.

“It was very important that we keep this core group together because if you are building a (house) you need to have a foundation. Bringing in these new players, you also need to have senior players to guide them,” said Stewart.

“Going into the season,” he added, “we are very upbeat. And, like everybody else, we want to win the league, but our main objective for each round is to stay as close as possible to the leaders.”

Off the field, Sporting are also keen to improve on their returns at the gates. Club president Ainsley Lowe revealed that changing their home ground last season, from Brancourt to the neighbouring Juici Patties Park, resulted in “a slight dip in attendance”.

“We are assuming that there was a lack of communication to our fans about the move and what we are trying to achieve,” reasoned Lowe. “This year we (will) truly be working hard to ensure that the patches at Juici Patties Park will be as vibrant as it was when we were at Brancourt.”